Katy Perry has made an offer to buy a convent in Los Angeles. The property sits on eight acres of hillside estate with an Italianate manor and outbuildings.
A home that adjoins the property Katy Perry wants to buy was made infamous due to being the site of the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca by the Manson Family in 1969. This is the site where the misspelled words “Healter Skelter” were written in blood on a refrigerator door.
That home is not part of the sale agreement between Perry and the archdiocese, but the sale is encountering problems of a different nature, namely: the nuns who occupied the convent until just a few years ago want to stop the sale.
The nuns’ beef with Perry is not about her pop music or anything moral, not even her “I Kissed a Girl” hit. Rather, it is because the nuns have already cut another deal on their own for the property, apart from the archdiocese. They are suing to stop the sale to Katy Perry, preferring to keep their original deal.
The nuns of the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary left the facility due to budget issues back in 2011, but some priests still occasionally use the site as a retreat location.
Perry’s terms of sale with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles include $10 million in cash, and another $4.5 million to purchase a facility for the priests that still use the convent as a retreat location.
The money in the deal would go to a trust that cares for the nuns of the facility.
Love Katy perry as much as the next person (jk #teamTaylor), but when nuns don't want you to buy their convent, back the eff off
— Catholic Girl Probs (@Catholicgrlprob) June 29, 2015
But the other deal the nuns have struck is with a buyer who has also offered $10 million, $100,000 of which has already been handed over, and another $5.5 million to boot.
But that money would go to the archdiocese, not to the nuns.
Some are saying that this other buyer wants to put a restaurant on the site, but that is denied by others. For her part, Katy Perry has had her eye on the property for two or three years.
“I would have thought everyone would sit down and it would be settled in five minutes,” said J. Michael Hennigan, a lawyer for the archdiocese. But misunderstandings and rumors seem to be propelling the dispute.
Three nuns want to sell to Perry, who has a tattoo on her wrist that reads “Jesus.” Two others want to sell to the other buyer.
Katy Perry and a group of elderly nuns are fighting for control of a spectacular LA convent: http://t.co/NZCQPUVB3w pic.twitter.com/exAbDGKJui
— CurbedLA (@CurbedLA) July 3, 2015
